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Rh out; and it proved even as I feared, for my mother was indeed sick, and had sent, desiring that I would come to see her. Therefore I went to Jesus at once, and besought him that he would suffer me to go to my mother. As I went to Jesus, I met Eliezer the son of Arak, and would have passed him. But he, noting that I was somewhat moved, stayed me, and having questioned me, he said, "If thou art wise, thou wilt not go to Jesus; for but now he forbade one of his disciples to bid farewell to his parents, and another he would not so much as suffer to bury the dead body of his father. For he rageth like a young lion taken in the net of the hunter; and whoso leaveth his side, though it be for an hour, seemeth to him a traitor. Be persuaded, therefore, and quit this Jesus of Nazareth, and his rabble of sinners, and come unto the side of the learned, and thou shalt have eminence among us."

Now I could not indeed deny that Jesus had forbidden certain of his disciples to leave him; but he had done it for their advantage, and because he knew that it would have been ill for them to leave him. Therefore I answered Eliezer with the same proverb which the ruler of the synagogue had said to Jesus, that it was better to be the tail of the lion than the head of the fox; and so I left him. For he spake out of a malignant heart, and not because he loved me. Moreover, I knew that if Jesus should say, Go not, it would be well said; for I trusted him in all things.

I found Jesus surrounded by many disciples, who had been asking him questions concerning John the Prophet, and concerning the manner of his deliverance. For all we at that time were assured in our minds that John would be delivered: for men counted John the son of Zachariah and Jesus of Nazareth as yoke-fellows in Israel, and the safety of one seemed to depend on the safety of the other,